Project Happiness Brings Some Much-Needed Warmth to E3

1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JUNE 4 | E3 2012

Project Happiness Brings Some Much-Needed Warmth to E3

Cover Story: Three powerful words from the creator of Harvest Moon: “Violence is boring.”

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f you judged E3 by the non-Nintendo conferences alone, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine the show floor as an increasingly violent gauntlet of simulated murder and brutality, with each successive publisher promising the latest in accurately rendered exit wound technology. But, as we attendees quickly learned, games with a far different approach existed within the halls of the Los Angeles Convention Center — you just had to track them down. And, lucky for me, the most atypical E3 showing could be found adjacent to a giant, inflatable cow towering over Natsume’s booth; this monument to all things Harvest Moon served as a fitting tribute to the series’ 15th anniversary, even if this occasion brings with it a change in management.

Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada has recently decided to take a hands-off approach to his famed farming series, but on his own terms. Not much Is known about his new IP, Project Wonderful, but Wada’s focus is clear; much like how the original SNES Harvest Moon defied the expectations of gamers in the 16-bit era, Project Happiness (the game’s working title) stands in direct opposition to the gritty, dark, and ultraviolent titles receiving the most mainstream attention this generation. Admittedly, it’s tough to ask developers their opinion on the industry in general without tacitly implying that they should criticize their competition, but, without naming names, Wada told me that selling a game based on graphics alone makes for the easiest way to impress players, then gave me a single quote that spoke volumes about the rowdy, chest-thumping bro culture spreading like a virus throughout the industry: “Violence is boring.”